Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (LA-ICP-MS)

描述（由申请人提供）：元素是大自然的基石。每一个生物和化学过程都是在原子水平上发生的元素相互作用的结果。了解生物体内的元素浓度、分布和动态，有可能彻底改变我们对这些构建模块在生物学所有领域的基础过程中如何组装和相互作用的理解。在这方面，我们请求提供资金，以购买激光烧蚀电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（LA-ICP-MS），测量各种生物样品中的元素浓度和分布。除了提供生物样品内元素的高灵敏度定量测量外，该机器还能够对切片动物组织内的元素分布进行成像。与此保持一致，LA-ICP-MS将通过扩展这些项目来为多个NIH资助的研究人员的研究计划提供服务，以允许高灵敏度的金属测量和元素成像。从这些研究中获得的综合结果有可能推进对各种疾病的研究，包括亨廷顿病、门克斯病、Minimata病、金属诱导的神经变性（如与帕金森病相关的神经变性）、肾脏疾病、不孕症和感染性疾病。目前，该机构没有类似的设备，我们也不知道在整个田纳西州有类似的设备可供我们机构的研究人员使用。获得LA-ICP-MS技术将大大提高范德比尔特研究人员的研究能力，当与范德比尔特提供的基于MS的蛋白质定位策略相结合时，将提供动物组织内金属蛋白运输和动力学的前所未有的细节。这些结果将为设计针对各种疾病的各种治疗药物奠定基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Elements are the building blocks of Nature. Every biologic and chemical process is the result of elemental interactions occurring at the atomic level. Understanding elemental concentrations, distributions and dynamics within living organisms has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of how these building blocks assemble and interact during processes fundamental to all fields of biology. In this regard, we request funds to purchase a laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LA-ICP-MS) to measure elemental concentrations and distributions in a variety of biological samples. In addition to providing highly sensitive quantitative measurements of elements within biological samples, this machine has the capability to image elemental distributions within sectioned animal tissue. In keeping with this, an LA-ICP-MS will serve the research programs of multiple NIH-funded investigators by expanding these projects to allow for highly sensitive metal measurements and elemental imaging. The combined results obtained from these studies have the potential to advance research on a variety of diseases including Huntington's disease, Menkes disease, Minimata disease, metal-induced neurodegeneration such as that associated with Parkinson's disease, kidney diseases, infertility, and infectious diseases. Currently, there is no comparable piece of equipment at this institution and we are not aware of a comparable piece of equipment in the entire state of Tennessee that is accessible to researchers from our institution. Access to LA-ICP-MS technology will significantly enhance the research capabilities of Vanderbilt investigators, and when interfaced with MS-based protein localization strategies that are available at Vanderbilt, will provide unprecedented detail of metalloprotein trafficking and dynamics within animal tissue. These results will lay the groundwork for the design of a variety of therapeutic agents targeting a diverse array of diseases.